THE ItETIRED ARMY OFFICER’S TALE.
“During the summer of eighteen hundred and
seventy-nine, while stationed at Vancouver Bar
racks, near Portland, Oregon, I received orders
transferring me to Plattsburg Barracks, on Lake
Champlain, in the eastern part of the state of New
York.”
“Delighted with the thought of returning to
civilization once more ; at the same time realizing
that it would probably be a long time before I
would again visit the Pacific coast, I decided to
visit the far-famed Yosemite Valley before leaving
for the East. So taking a coasting vessel I left
for San Francisco, arriving there in due time with
out any but the best of weather, and most pleas
ant sailing.
‘•That year, 1879, marked the first decade of
the existence of the Union Pacific railroad. Great
swarms of travelers were attracted to California
by its beautiful scenery, its wonderful climate,
and its natural wealth. For those, attracted by
the scenery, the valley of the Yosemite was the
“Mecca.”
“At the Baldwin House, where I was staying in
San Francisco, I met two gentlemen from “Old
Virginia” who like myself were bent on a pleasure
trip. They were going to leave for the Yosemite
the next day and invited me to join them. I de
cided to accept and we left early the next morning
by railroad, for a small town, the name of which
I cannot at present recall, where we would have
to take a stage to finish our journey.
“We arrived at the end of our railway journey
without any incident worthy of mention, and after
a goodnight’s rest we took the stage, at an early
hour in the morning, for our destination.
“It was a cold, damp, foggy morning, not at
all propitious to the most comfortable traveling.
Our coach, an old and well worn Concord, was
well filled with passengers who were destined to
become very tired before their journey would be
completed. As usual there were some nervous
persons among the occupants of the coach who had
their fears of highwaymen and stage robberies.
THE FREE LANCE.
“One little, old man, with a squeaky voice had
finished relating some formerunfortunate meeting
in this particular way and the passengers were re
flecting in silence, when, just as the coach turned
a sharp bend, after ascending along, steep hill,
we were startled by the crack of a revolver and a
deep bass voice commanding the driver to stop.
There wasn’t any doubt in our minds, about the
owner of that voice being “a lone highwayman”
of California.
“The Virginia gentlemen had taken the precau
tion to arm themselves; and as to myself, I had my
officer’s pistol, and the moment I heard the voice,
I leaned out the door, aimed, shot, and wound
ed the robber in his right arm which fell useless to
his side. The Virginia gentlemen ably aided mt;
one commanded the robber to throw up his other
arm, and the other brought a rope from the driv
er’s box and we bound him hand and foot.
“After the usual ‘I told you so,' ‘that’s just
my luck,’ and other comments, had been made by
the startled passengers, we put the robber into the
stage coach and proceeded to the end of our jour
ney, where we turned him over to the proper au
thorities.
“Our prisoner proved to be Sontag, the notor
ious “outlaw of the Sicras," and later I learned
that he was sentenced to a long imprisonment in the
state Penitentiary and that he died, shortly after
wards, long before his term had expired.”
just as the story was thus brought to an end,
the whistle at the old Pail Factory sounded the
supper hour and in a few minutes the Fish Ha!tch
ery was entirely deserted
Of the twenty-threemen who received honors
at Harvard this year, eleven are prominent ath-
A “Whisker Club,’’ consisting of twenty Sen
iors in the Law School, has been organized at
the University of Michigan. Dear Seniors you
will be behind the times unless some one of you
will cultivate a full beard in which to graduate.
H. H. A.